Bustling Bangkok

Aloha friends and family,

Or rather, sawasdee khrap. I realized I’ve been missing the opportunity to impart the tiny bit of Thai language I’ve learned to you all, so I’ll start now. Sawasdee (pronounced “sah-wah-dee”) is the Thai word for hello. Khrap is the male participle men are supposed to append to, as far as I can tell, almost every phrase. Ka is the female participle, so a woman says hello by saying “sawasdee ka”, with the “ka” often drawn out. I’ll end the first Thai lesson here to not overwhelm you all with too much information, not because I only know a couple phrases.

Mel and I arrived in Bangkok on January 21, just in time for Chinese New Year. We didn’t have much of a plan for Bangkok, but we thought it would be a fun place to observe the holiday. We were feeling a little partied out from Koh Phi Phi, so we took refuge in the Royal Benja Hotel, a lovely 4-star hotel with a luxurious room, a gym, and a breakfast buffet, for a night. Our hotel was by the Nana Plaza, which we didn’t realize was one of the three biggest red light districts in Bangkok, but became obvious when we saw several tourists with prostitutes and shady massage parlors on the 15-minute walk to dinner. As we walked down the street we were solicited by prostitutes and ladyboys, but it’s easy to ignore them and keep walking, and we never felt unsafe. We ate at a vegan restaurant called Veganerie Nana that had the most expansive menu for a vegan place I’d ever seen for dinner and dessert. The food was surprisingly great and filling.

The next morning, we worked out and went to the grand breakfast buffet in our hotel, which might have had the most options I’ve ever seen for a breakfast buffet. We relaxed there for a while, indulging in the breakfast buffet and watching the Eagles stomp the Giants in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs (Fly Eagles Fly! - At the time of publishing this, we're a few days after a tough Super Bowl loss. Still, amazing season for the Birds.).

Mel and I checked out at noon and took a bus to Mad Monkey hostel. I wanted to try taking as many different forms of transportation as I could in Thailand, so I insisted on the bus and it ended up being one of the least pleasant rides. It was difficult to flag the bus down, so a few passed by before we were able to piggyback off locals getting on. We had all our luggage so it was cumbersome to move around and get to our seats we chose in the back to be out of people’s ways. It also cost close to as much as a taxi and we had to walk 15 minutes with all our stuff after being dropped off, so it was not worth it and we don’t plan on taking any more city buses. (How does it stack up against a minibus? The jury is still out on that one. More to come in future blog posts.)

We relaxed by the pool in the afternoon and got a tuk tuk to Chinatown in the evening to see the Chinese New Year celebrations. We enjoyed the open air of the tuk tuk and unique design, so it was a decidedly better ride.

(Our driver wanted to get a picture of us in the front of the tuk tuk, probably since we're comically tall for either one of us to be up there alone, let alone both of us together. During rides, we'd be passengers in the slightly more spacious backseat of the tuk tuk.)

We actually cut our ride short because the traffic near Chinatown was insane. For the last five minutes before we hopped out, foot traffic was consistently faster than vehicle traffic, but even on foot it was mayhem. We walked down this one narrow street that had cars going one way, pedestrians walking both ways, street vendors on both sides, and motorbikes trying to sneak by on the sides. All the traffic made moving around challenging and stressful.

We eventually made it to the main celebration, where there were tons of performances, food, and decorations. We walked aimlessly for a while, soaking in the sights and sounds and watching some of the singers and dancers. There was a plethora of foods that looked fascinating and mysterious, but we didn’t try any. Prawns and shrimp were ubiquitous, so unlabeled food options were too risky because of Mel’s shellfish allergy. Eventually even the steam from the shellfish was triggering the start of an allergic reaction and we had to scramble through the crowded streets of Chinatown to prevent it from escalating. Thankfully she was fine, and we tucked in at the hostel with a nice American dinner of burgers and onion rings. Though chaotic, Chinatown was an interesting, and very immersive, cultural experience.

The next day we wanted to do the touristy things in the city. We were walking in the direction of the Grand Palace when a friendly local waved us down and asked where we were going. He told us the big tourist attractions were closed in the morning in observance of Chinese New Year, but he had a few recommendations himself. He showed us all the spots on a map and even wrote them down in both Thai and English.

After crafting this itinerary for us, he explained that the government was paying for the gas of tuk tuks this week because of Chinese New Year so prices should be very cheap, around 50 Baht (~$1.50) for the whole tour. As soon as he finished telling us about everything, a tuk tuk conveniently appeared and he flagged him down and told him where to take us, pointing to the names of places on our written itinerary. The tuk tuk driver agreed to take us and would wait for us at each of the stops. We sincerely thanked this affable man and said goodbye, feeling lucky to have such a unique and local agenda.

The first stop on our trip was a temple and “Lucky Buddha” statue. We weren’t sure what made it so lucky, but as we were looking at it, another outgoing man started explaining its significance to us. He said it was only open a couple days a year on special holidays and that we were very lucky to see it. He asked if we were Buddhists and locals since not many tourists came to that part of town, apparently. We told him no and he explained how lucky we were to see it, and that people planned their trips around being able to visit the Lucky Buddha. He said he was there because his brother was getting married soon, and it was auspicious to pray at the statue.

He casually mentioned how his brother was planning his honeymoon using a service called Thailand Information for Tourists, or TIT, and that it helped him find unbeatable local prices that were about 30% of normal prices. He said it was part of an initiative of the Thai government to promote tourism, because happy tourists would spread the word to their friends and families in their home countries. While talking about the wedding, the man also mentioned that there was a master tailor offering his expertise to make custom suits for reasonable prices since it was the holiday. We weren’t really in the market for suits or fancy dresses, but we thanked him for his advice and left, happy to be meeting so many earnest, kind locals.

The next stop on our tuk tuk tour happened to be the tailor’s shop. The first man we talked to that set us up with the plan had mentioned that we would need more conservative clothing to visit the temples and wrote the tailor’s shop down as one of the stops. We thought maybe it would be a tourist attraction, but the building was nondescript and unexciting. The tailor had us sit down and look through a catalog. When we told him we weren’t interested in any suits, he ushered us out the door. Mel and I were feeling a little weird and didn’t know if we were expected to buy something, but since Thai silk is a famous product, we thought maybe the suit shop was a stop most tourists make.

Our next stop was another temple. It was pretty but not too impressive, and we only walked around for a bit before going back to the tuk tuk. Then we stopped at the TIT office. We hadn’t really been sure what it was when the first man we met wrote it down, but after talking to the man at Lucky Buddha we thought it could be a good stop for us since we didn’t have much planned for the rest of our time in Thailand. The lady in the office tried to entice is into activities like visiting elephant sanctuaries but we told her we didn’t have a solid enough idea of our schedule yet to book anything. After that she showed us the exit.

This stop also felt odd and Mel and I were getting suspicious. En route to the final stop I looked up whether TIT was legit and found several people online saying that it was a scam. They mentioned tuk tuk drivers taking people to tailor shops or gem stores to get them to buy overpriced goods and fake tickets for services that didn’t exist. As a reward for bringing in potential customers, the tuk tuk drivers are given gas money by the sham vendors.

The final stop was a tour for a floating market that was outrageously overpriced. As soon as the lady saw our disinterest upon hearing her first price, she dropped it by 30%. We told her we still weren’t interested and I think she could tell we knew it was a scam, so she said there were other floating markets elsewhere we could find, which seemed like some of the only sincere advice we’d received all day.

We went back to the tuk tuk driver, but we might have spent too little time for him to think we were buying the scam anymore. As a result, he stopped driving us, even though we’d wanted to go to the Grand Palace for our final stop. We paid him his 50 Baht and walked the rest of the way since it was a short distance.

As we were walking we thought about how the first guy asked us whether we’d been to Thailand before and whether we spoke Thai. Seemingly innocuous questions at first, in retrospect they seemed designed to gauge how likely they’d be in successfully scamming us. Also, the suit for entry into temples is unnecessary because the temples let you borrow cover when you visit. We were sad not to have made authentic Thai friends but happy to have avoided the scam. Honestly, the experience wasn’t bad because we got to see a couple temples and ride around in a tuk tuk for a really cheap price.

We salvaged the afternoon by getting lunch at a western café and exploring Wat Pho, a large temple with majestic architecture. It took us almost an hour to walk around the temple and see the beautiful buildings. The highlight was the Sleeping Buddha, a giant, 46-meter Buddha statue lying down.

It was late in the afternoon and we’d seen enough temples at this point, so we only viewed Wat Arun, another grand temple, from across the river, but didn’t visit any more. Back at the hostel we ate dinner and drank and socialized with others. Mad Monkey brands itself as a party hostel, so many of the residents were in the bar area hanging out. We talked with some cool people from all over the world before eventually going out to Khao San Road, the biggest party street in Bangkok and quite similar to Bangla Road in Phuket. The whole street was deafeningly loud and none of the places really looked fun. Mel and I walked along to see the options before getting food and heading home. I feel like I’ve checked that box and won’t need to go back any time soon, if ever.

The next morning we looked for a new Airbnb, since we didn’t have anywhere to stay starting that night. We were feeling a little burnt out from traveling and wanted a place where we could exercise, cook, and not do much for at least a few days. We found a nice Airbnb apartment in the Phra Khanong district with a kitchen, gym, and rooftop pool with good views of the city. We got groceries at the mall next door, worked out, cooked dinner, watched TV, and went to bed. It felt good to catch our breaths for a moment and not rush around trying to do everything.

We didn’t do much the next couple days. I caught up on writing this blog and reading, and we spent time watching TV and cooking meals. We made stir fry and pho for a couple dinners and it felt good to cook after eating out every single meal. We used the workout facility and pool, both on the 32nd floor of the apartment, and enjoyed the views from up there.

One of the only outings was exploring a couple nearby parks. The first one I went to was Lumphini. There were a couple basketball courts and a playground, but it still felt very much like I was in the city. There was lots of pavement around and the traffic and buildings of the bustling city were visible.

The next park I visited was Benchakitti, which I liked much more. I felt removed from the city and like I was in a forest with the sounds of birds singing and insects buzzing. There were lanes for jogging and biking and pedestrian bridges to walk over natural green areas with tall grass. There was also a big lake on the edge of the park that was a nice blending of nature and the city, since all the skyscrapers and roads were visible from it.

Friday was our last full day in Bangkok. Our big plan for the day was a cooking class in the afternoon. We found a vegan class located 16 km away, but it took us about an hour to get there because the traffic is terrible.

The class was not what we were expecting. We showed up to the class location which is a restaurant that the main instructor, May Kaidee, operates. During our class, the restaurant was actually open and we cooked meals for diners. I have no idea how many FDA regulations that would’ve violated in the USA, but it was cool to do it in Thailand. We were the only ones in the class but it didn’t feel like we had May’s attention the whole time as she rushed around to cook for customers and prep for the next day's large class coming as part of a tour group. When May wasn’t with us, two of her assistants helped us, but they didn’t speak English so it was difficult at times to understand the instructions based on hand gestures alone.

The format of instruction was also different from what we expected. Instead of watching May cook meals and then trying to do it ourselves, we started out by cooking the meals ourselves, going off the instructions in a cooking booklet and receiving tips from May if we were unsure what to do. We were moving at a good pace to get through several recipes in the booklet and it was difficult to absorb the knowledge. I wished we’d cooked fewer recipes but received more guidance and concrete tips along the way. Luckily Mel, being a professional chef, was able to follow along and keep us on track. (She posts fun, easy to follow cooking content on her cooking Instagram, @melaniesconfidentkitchen - check it out!) The end result was a bunch of delicious food we got to eat: tom yum soup, pad thai, papaya salad, spring rolls, and mango sticky rice.

The next day we spent some time in the pool before checking out and journeying up to Khao Yai National Park. Bangkok feels like a city you have to visit because of all the intrigue around it (it was the city with the most international visitors in the world in 2022), but we thought it was overhyped. I don’t regret visiting; Chinatown for Chinese New Year was a spectacle, and the temples and markets were interesting to see. Overall, though, we found the city to be chaotic with insufferable traffic, lots of haze, and not much green space. That’s all for now. Khawp khun khrap (Thank you) for reading!